1. science
2. biology
3. zoology
4. endangered species

February 4, 2015
National Water Resources Association
Daily Report
In This Issue
WATER POLICY:...Key Republican ratchets up pressure on EPA over waterways
maps
ENDANGERED SPECIES:...Enviros sue over dams' harm to 'living dinosaur' fish
ENDANGERED SPECIES:...Bullet train prep violates kit fox protections -- FWS
REGULATIONS:...White House issues veto threat against regulatory reform bill
CONSERVATION:...Senate bills would boost land preservation
PROPERTY RIGHTS:...Greens urge judge to dismiss ranchers' trespassing
lawsuit
AGRICULTURE:...Conservation programs take a hit in Obama's USDA spending
plan
AGRICULTURE:...U.S. to open doors to Chinese apples
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE:...Request prioritizes operations, acquisitions over
species
Students hear drought and water conservation message
California: Water Use Down, but Emergency Persists
Californians make major water cuts in December, reach Gov. Brown's goal
Upcoming NWRA
Meetings:
Federal Water Issues
Conference - April 13-15,
2015, Washington Court
Hotel, Washington, DC
Western Water Seminar
- August 4-6, 2015, Hyatt
Regency Monterey,
Monterey, California
84th Annual Conference
- November 4-6, 2015,
Westin Denver Hotel,
Denver, Colorado
Upcoming Member
Meetings:
2015
February 3-5, Texas
Water Conservation
Association 11th Annual
Texas Water Day,
Washington, DC
Save the Date FWIC
Sahoma Lake Too Low For Sapulpa Water Treatment Plant
Can Sun and Wind Make More Salt Water...Drinkable?
Scientists see shrinking California snowpack as harbinger
Fish eating fish and the tales of California water woes
Advocates say in lawsuit that dinosaur-like sturgeon could be wiped out by river
dams
Solving L.A.'s Water Problems By Turning It Into A Giant Sponge
WATER POLICY:
Key Republican ratchets up pressure on EPA over
waterways maps
Annie Snider, E&E reporter
February 4, Montana
Water Resources
Association Annual
Membership and Winter
Board Meeting,
Helena, MT
February 19-20, Family
Farm Alliance Annual
Meeting & Conference,
Las Vegas, NV
February 25-26,
Association of California
Water Agencies
Washington Conference,
Washington, DC
March 4-6, Texas Water
Conservation
Published: Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Ahead of a major joint hearing on the Obama administration's controversial water
rule set to begin this morning, a key House Republican yesterday revived
concerns over a series of U.S. EPA maps that he says reveal the proposal's broad
reach.
EPA sent the maps to House Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar
Smith (R-Texas) last summer in response to a request. Agency officials said at the
time that the maps were produced to show waters where Clean Water Act
coverage might be in question following two muddled Supreme Court decisions,
but that they did not -- and could not -- portray which waters the agency would
assert jurisdiction over under the proposed rule, since such determinations rely on
site-specific factors (Greenwire, Aug. 28, 2014).
Ken Kopocis, deputy assistant administrator for water at EPA, reiterated that point
during a Jan. 8 meeting with committee staff, Smith said in a letter sent to EPA
Administrator Gina McCarthy yesterday. According to Smith, Kopocis also said
that the project was initiated by junior staff in the Office of Water, without senior
leaders' knowledge.
But Smith said that documents related to the project that EPA delivered in
response to his request suggest otherwise.
In the letter, he pointed to an email from an EPA employee to a contractor whose
company produced the maps using data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the
Fish and Wildlife Service.
"We'll have to set up a call/meeting to discuss remaining work and prioritization,"
the email from EPA wetlands division employee Rose Kwok states, according to a
copy of the correspondence shared by the committee withE&E Daily. "I know that
Nancy Stoner has been very eager to get results to the NPDES analysis."
NPDES stands for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the regulatory
program that covers discharges from wastewater treatment plants, factories and
other point sources. The email does not describe what the analysis was or its
ultimate purpose, and an EPA spokeswomen did not reply to questions about it
yesterday.
Stoner was the acting assistant administrator for the Office of Water at the time.
Another email in the exchange refers to "requests from our management for some
final numbers."
"Rather than providing full transparency about the maps, the motivations behind
their creation and the reason for them being kept from public view, the agency's
response only raises additional questions at a time when the agency is attempting
to re-write Clean Water Act jurisdiction," Smith wrote to McCarthy yesterday.
"Contrary to EPA's assertions to the Committee, senior EPA officials appear to
have been actively engaged in the work between the Office of Water and the
contractor engaged to produce the maps," he added. "Additional documents
appear to provide further evidence that EPA created the maps to aid in its efforts
to expand its regulatory reach over private property owners across the nation."
Smith requested more documents in his letter, including all those related to the
mapping project and all agency communications related to responding to his prior
request.
Mapping has become a potent tool for players on both sides of the battle over the
water regulation.
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Opponents have not only pointed to the EPA maps but also created their
own mapping tool aimed at localizing the proposal's reach. EPA, meanwhile, has
produced its own interactive map to show where drinking water supplies are fed
by the seasonal and rain-dependent streams at issue in the proposed rule.
The rule, which would increase the number of streams and creeks that receive
automatic protection under the Clean Water Act, has become a top target for
congressional Republicans. The House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are this
morning holding a joint hearing on the proposal with McCarthy, Assistant Secretary
of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy, and local and state officials. Senate
Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) has said he intends to hold his own
hearing soon.
EPA also received another major document request from Congress yesterday.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (RWis.) wrote EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers demanding information about
the agencies' consultation with states, engagement with farmers, and legal
justification for the proposed rule within two weeks.
Reprinted from E&E Daily with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing,
LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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AGRICULTURE:
House chairman advocates 'bully pulpit' on regulation, not hearings
Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, February 4, 2015
House Agriculture Chairman Michael Conaway (R-Texas) said yesterday his committee will likely take a sidelines
approach on environmental and safety regulations, saving their hearings for the committee's more pressing
matters.
At the top of the list for Conaway is the reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and of the
child nutrition program, as well as oversight of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps.
He will leave hearings on regulations, specifically the hot-button Waters of the United States proposed rule, to other
House committees, he told reporters at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA)
annual winter policy conference.
"I don't have jurisdiction over that, but I'm going to talk about it," Conaway said of the U.S. EPA-Army Corps of
Engineers waters rule and the issue of labeling genetically engineered food. He added, "we will be using whatever
bully pulpit we might have."
The Obama administration's Waters of the United States proposal would expand the number of rivers and streams
receiving automatic protection under the Clean Water Act. Although the Agriculture Committee is not responsible
for EPA regulations outside of pesticide rules, members of the committee have echoed concerns from agriculture
trade groups that the proposal is confusing and could lead to hefty fines for farmers and ranchers.
A joint Senate-House hearing -- led by Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.)
and House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) -- on the waters rule is slated for 10
a.m. today (E&E Daily, Feb. 2).
The GMO labeling issue was taken up last year in an Energy and Commerce hearing when the committee
considered H.R. 4432, a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) that would block state and local attempts to
label genetically modified products.
In addition to the CFTC and nutrition priorities, the House Agriculture Committee is expected to focus on
implementation of the 2014 farm bill, particularly the roll-out of commodity programs and crop insurance. The
committee will also meet with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman today, said Conaway. Froman is
currently negotiating two trade agreements, one with a number of Asian nations and another with European
countries. The deals are expected to open markets for agricultural exports.
Conaway's take is different from the approach of Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who has
identified regulations -- from the Waters of the United States proposal to the lesser prairie chicken listing under the
Endangered Species Act -- as a top threat to farmers and ranchers.
The first priority of the committee is to be a "champion" to the agriculture community, Roberts told an audience at
the NASDA conference.
"If these various agencies won't listen to us, then we'll use all of the resources of the committee to ensure they sure
should listen to us," he said.
Reprinted from E&E Daily with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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ENDANGERED SPECIES:
Enviros sue over dams' harm to 'living dinosaur' fish
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
The pallid sturgeon faces localized extinction in the upper Missouri River Basin because dam operations prevent
the "living dinosaur" species from accessing spawning grounds, according to a new lawsuit from conservation
groups.
Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the lawsuit today against the
Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, and Fish and Wildlife Service. Among other things, they accuse
the agencies of violating the Endangered Species Act by not adequately changing the operations of two dams.
In particular, the groups take aim at a plan from the corps that would increase the size of the Intake Diversion Dam
on the Yellowstone River. The dam blocks pallid sturgeon from moving upstream, so the corps also plans to add a
3-mile channel that allows the fish to swim around the dam.
But conservationists say that is not sufficient to save an aging wild population comprising only 125 fish.
"We are simply not going to stand by while the federal agencies charged with ensuring that ancient sturgeon don't
go extinct spend scarce taxpayer dollars on a plan that has no reasonable expectation of success," said Steve
Forrest, senior representative for Defenders of Wildlife's Rockies and Plains Program. "We know the agencies can
do better, and we're challenging them to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that creates actual
fish passage for this endangered fish on the Yellowstone River."
FWS listed the pallid sturgeon as endangered in 1990. With a flattened snout shaped like a shovel and a body that
can measure 6 feet, it is called a "living dinosaur" because its predecessor is believed to have lived during the
Cretaceous Period. It takes 20 years to mature and can live for 50.
The Intake Diversion Dam and the Fort Peck Dam have prevented the fish from reproducing in the Missouri and
Yellowstone rivers for decades. While the former prevents fish passage, the latter destroys nursery habitat due to
the timing, magnitude and temperature of the water released, according to a recent study in the journal Fisheries.
That study was the first to directly link dam-induced changes in sediment transport to reduced oxygen levels and
the survival of the pallid sturgeon.
"This research shows that the transition zone between the freely flowing river and reservoirs is an ecological sink -a dead zone -- for pallid sturgeon," said Christopher Guy, a professor at Montana State University who was the
lead author on the paper. "Essentially, hatched sturgeon embryos die in the oxygen-depleted sediments in the
transition zones."
Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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ENDANGERED SPECIES:
Bullet train prep violates kit fox protections -- FWS
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Construction of California's bullet train has barely begun, but the High-Speed Rail Authority has already harmed an
endangered species of fox, according to federal regulators.
The Fish and Wildlife Service said the authority's 9-acre construction yard was set up outside the approved project
footprint and in territory of the endangered San Joaquin kit fox in the Central Valley.
The breach resulted in the destruction of a kit fox den.
In addition, the authority has not complied with conditions of the bullet train's federal biological opinion on six
issues, including the failure to submit biological survey reports, according to a Jan. 26 letter from Fish and Wildlife
to the authority.
There are only 7,000 kit foxes left in the state, making it one of California's most endangered animals. The authority
is not being fined for its breach, however, because it has proposed creating a new permanent habitat for the kit fox
to offset what was destroyed, according to Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Sarah Swenty (Ralph Vartabedian, Los
Angeles Times, Feb. 2). -- AW
Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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REGULATIONS:
White House issues veto threat against regulatory reform bill
Kevin Bogardus, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, February 4, 2015
The White House yesterday issued a veto threat against legislation that would impose a more stringent review of
agencies' proposed regulations.
In a statement of administration policy, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said H.R. 50, known as the
"Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2015," "would introduce needless uncertainty into
agency decision-making and undermine the ability of agencies to provide critical public health and safety
protections."
It added, "If H.R. 50 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill."
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), would require agencies to perform more reviews on their
forthcoming rules and assess alternatives to those regulations, as well.
The House Rules Committee yesterday approved a rule that blocks amendments to Foxx's bill, despite a request
from Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) for an open process. The panel voted 6-2 along party lines to send the bill
to the floor under a closed rule.
The bill is expected to be voted on today on the House floor.
Reprinted from E&E Daily with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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CONSERVATION:
Senate bills would boost land preservation
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Lawmakers this week introduced two bipartisan measures to conserve lands and increase recreational access.
Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Monday introduced a bill, S.
338, to permanently extend the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which authorizes up to $900 million to be
spent annually on the acquisition and conservation of lands.
The bill comes one week after a similar amendment by Burr, Bennet and Ayotte came within one vote of passing
the Senate as part of S. 1, the bill to authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
That amendment at one point had 62 votes -- enough to pass -- but three Republican senators switched their votes
to "no" (Greenwire, Jan. 29).
Reauthorization of LWCF, which expires Sept. 30, is a major priority for lawmakers of both parties, the Obama
administration, conservationists and sportsmen who benefit from protected, accessible open spaces.
"The Senate showed significant bipartisan support to permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation
Fund," Burr said in a statement yesterday. "LWCF has a proven track record of making good on their promise to
conserve parks, open spaces and wildlife habitats for the benefit of future generations."
It is unclear whether there is sufficient support in Congress for a clean extension of LWCF. Fiscal conservatives
oppose using LWCF dollars to acquire new lands while the Interior Department, the nation's primary landlord, faces
up to tens of billions of dollars in deferred maintenance projects.
Reauthorization would likely need approval from Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (RAlaska), a key critic of federal land acquisitions. Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon said no hearing has been
scheduled for the bill.
In the House, Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) last summer said LWCF money should be used
not just on land acquisition but also for new uses like county payments or to train oil and gas workers (E&E Daily,
July 25, 2014). Conservationists have so far balked at the proposal.
While LWCF is authorized at $900 million -- paid for through offshore oil and gas royalties -- in recent years it has
only been funded at roughly one-third that amount. Republicans this year will control both Appropriations panels
that set LWCF funding for the first time in nearly a decade.
Lawmakers this week also introduced legislation to extend an expired tax break that encourages private
landowners to permanently conserve their lands.
S. 330 by Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and H.R. 641 by Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.)
and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), would permanently extend an enhanced tax deduction for conservation easements
that preserve private lands for wildlife, recreation and scenery. The deduction expired last December.
"This incentive is a proven success, making conservation a real and affordable option for many farmers, ranchers
and other landowners since 2006," said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance.
The House last December voted 275-149 in favor of H.R. 5806, a bill to permanently extend the easement
deduction and two other tax incentives for charitable giving, but it was a handful of votes short of the two-thirds
majority needed to advance the measure under suspension of the rules.
The White House had threatened to veto the bill because it had no offset to cover its $11 billion price tag. The
conservation easement provision within the bill would have cost closer to $1 billion over the next decade.
LNG-diesel disparity
Bennet and Burr yesterday also reintroduced legislation aimed at a glitch in the tax code they say disadvantages
liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a source of fuel for heavy-duty trucks.
The problem, they say, is that LNG and diesel fuel are subject to the same 24.3-cent-per-gallon tax, but you can
drive 1.7 miles on a gallon of diesel for every 1 mile driven on a gallon of LNG. That means truckers pay more in
taxes to drive the same distance.
"This bill would allow LNG and diesel to compete more fairly in the market, while offering a cleaner fuel source to
help keep our air clean," Bennet said in a statement.
The bill has broad bipartisan support on its merits but has struggled to gain traction on its own as lawmakers
continue to try for a comprehensive overhaul of the tax code.
Reporter Nick Juliano contributed.
Reprinted from E&E Daily with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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PROPERTY RIGHTS:
Greens urge judge to dismiss ranchers' trespassing lawsuit
Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
A Western conservation group fighting cattle grazing on public lands renewed its call today for a judge to dismiss a
trespass lawsuit brought by Wyoming ranchers.
More than a dozen ranchers have filed a lawsuit claiming the Idaho-based Western Watershed Project's Wyoming
representative drove across their land to collect water samples.
The lawsuit in Wyoming state court is based on samples the environmental group submitted to the state to prove
cows are contaminating streams on public lands. The ranchers claim that based on where the samples were taken,
Western Watersheds must have used roads that cross their property to get to them.
Western Watersheds has long been criticized by the public lands ranching industry for its aggressive tactics. The
conservation group claims the lawsuit is an effort to put them out of business or scare them off (Greenwire, Nov.
18, 2014).
They have filed a motion to dismiss the suit. Today, in court documents, they claimed the ranchers "spin a web of
baseless and contradictory allegations."
In particular, Western Watersheds argues that the roads its employee, Jonathan Ratner, used are largely public
ones maintained by the federal government. Those roads skirt over short tracts of private land in some places, but
in those areas there are documented public easements, the group said.
The ranchers, the group said, "systematically decline to either admit or deny the existence of those easement, but
rather choose to keep their position a secret."
Ratner submitted the water samples to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The group says they
show highly elevated levels of E. coli, a bacteria found in animal wastes, and was seeking to convince DEQ to add
the streams to a list of water bodies needing Clean Water Act protections.
In the court filing, the group claims that the ranchers are pursuing the case because they "dislike" Western
Watersheds's "participation in the political process."
Click here for the filing.
Reprinted from E&ENews PM with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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AGRICULTURE:
Conservation programs take a hit in Obama's USDA spending plan
Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
The roughly $850 million in proposed cuts over five years in Agriculture Department conservation programs could
undermine a much-touted regional model for improving water quality, reducing soil erosion and providing wildlife
habitat without government regulation.
The Obama administration's fiscal 2016 budget released yesterday would cut 3 million acres from the Conservation
Stewardship Program (CSP), a voluntary program that helps farmers and ranchers maintain and expand different
conservation practices -- the equivalent of a $486 million reduction in funding. The budget request would also cut
back $373 million from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which offers technical and financial
assistance to landowners looking to change their practices. Both CSP and EQIP were authorized in the 2014 farm
bill.
The reductions would lead to even deeper cuts on top of the roughly $540 million that Congress cut from the
programs' mandatory funding in the fiscal 2015 spending bill passed in December (E&E Daily, Dec. 10, 2014).
"Pretty soon, there will be precious little left out of the conservation budget," said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for
the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Conservation programs overall faced a $6 billion cut in the latest
farm bill, much of it due to consolidation of 23 programs into 13 (E&E Daily, Feb. 6, 2014).
Chipping away at these programs could eventually affect funding for the Regional Conservation Partnership
Program, a much-lauded new initiative that matches the funds provided by local governments and organizations for
regional, landscape-scale conservation initiatives. Projects accepted into the RCPP are allowed to rely on CSP and
EQIP practices to achieve larger conservation goals.
"NWF is extremely disappointed that the President's budget proposes steep cuts to effective voluntary conservation
programs that improve soil health, create wildlife habitat, and improve water quality," Aviva Glaser, a senior policy
specialist with the National Wildlife Federation, said in an email.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has consistently backed the RCPP. The administration has proposed $330
million for the second round of award winners in fiscal 2016, about $130 million more than what conservation
advocates expected after the first round of winners was announced in January, said Ariel Wiegard, director of the
Center for Agriculture and Private Lands at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
With half of the financial load of RCPP on local governments and organization -- $330 million from USDA would
mean $660 million or more total -- the program is a model for "creative ways to leverage the resources," providing
more conservation with fewer federal dollars, Vilsack said.
This "will be added to an already record number of acres enrolled in conservation," he said. A plan in the budget to
protect state and private parcels that are adjacent to Forest Service lands via reciprocal protection agreements
would add 20 million acres for conservation. USDA's budget also calls for full funding of the Land and Water
Conservation Fund and $200 million for watershed and flood prevention, which earned the support of
environmental and wildlife groups yesterday.
"The President's budget provides a fiscally responsible path toward restoring funding for widely popular
conservation programs by undoing the draconian spending cuts inflicted under sequestration," the Wilderness
Society said in a statement.
It's not just USDA and conservation-minded lawmakers who love the program. Most conservation groups are very
supportive of RCPP, Wiegard said.
But, she added, "we all want to make sure they're not focusing on these huge landscape programs at the expense
of producer programs."
Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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AGRICULTURE:
U.S. to open doors to Chinese apples
Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Following an announcement last week that U.S. apple growers will be able to sell their fruit in the Chinese market,
Americans should expect Chinese apples to hit grocery shelves soon, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Administrator Kevin Shea said today.
The agreement signals a "sign of the times," said Shea, speaking at the National Association of State Departments
of Agriculture's annual winter conference in Washington, D.C.
"Just three or four years ago, domestic apple producers were adamant that we should never allow any Chinese
apples into the United States," he said, "but within the last year, they understood the basic principle that if you're
going to export, you're probably going to have to import."
The move could increase U.S. exports to China by 5 million bushels annually, a $100 million value, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agreement was reached during bilateral discussions between USDA and
China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in San Francisco.
First, however, APHIS must finalize a proposed rule published in July that would allow the importation of Chinese
apples. The rule would allow the apple imports on the condition that producers register the names of production
centers and packinghouses, regulators inspect for quarantine pests at set intervals, and other safety measures are
taken into account. Of particular concern is the Oriental fruit fly, a destructive agricultural pest.
The proposal drew the ire of some environmental groups, which say China's standards are not stringent enough to
ensure safety.
"This proposed rule would increase the volume of imported apples that should be inspected for residues of
pesticides and other contaminants, such as arsenic," wrote Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water
Watch.
State farm bureaus also expressed concern.
"Our fruit and vegetable farmer members lack of confidence in the ability of the Chinese government to adhere to
the workplan for importing apples provided by USDA APHIS," wrote Debbie Hamrick, director of specialty crops for
the North Carolina Farm Bureau.
Reprinted from E&ENews PM with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE:
Request prioritizes operations, acquisitions over species
Corbin Hiar, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Spending levels at the Fish and Wildlife Service would get a significant boost under the budget proposed yesterday
by the president, with most of the new funds targeting operations, maintenance and land conservation.
The Obama administration's fiscal 2016 spending proposal for FWS is $1.6 billion, an increase of $135.7 million -or about 9 percent -- over current spending levels. The president's budget request also includes $1.4 billion for
state fish and wildlife efforts, which is provided annually via a permanent appropriation.
Nearly all of the 2016 FWS budget -- $1.5 billion -- "is proposed for the service as part of the administration's
initiative to reconnect Americans to the outdoors while developing a landscape level understanding of climate
change," according to FWS.
The America's Great Outdoors program, as the initiative is referred to, includes $1.3 billion for FWS operations, an
increase of $119.2 million from the current appropriation. It also would increase funding for operations and
maintenance of the National Wildlife Refuge System by $34 million to $508.2 million in fiscal 2016.
"We are creating new ways to engage young audiences in outdoor experiences, both on wildlife refuges and
partner lands," FWS Director Dan Ashe said in a release. "With 80 percent of the U.S. population currently residing
in urban communities, helping urban dwellers to rediscover the outdoors is a priority for the service."
FWS's efforts are part of a broader endeavor to not only build public support for federal lands but also find new
federal workers, according to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
"Across the Department of the Interior, 40 percent -- four zero percent -- of our permanent workforce will be eligible
to retire within the next five years," Jewell said on a call yesterday with reporters. "We need to have capable and
passionate people ready to be the next set of engineers, biologists and park rangers. And that work needs to start
now," she said, referring to programs like America's Great Outdoors.
The administration also calls for an increase in funding for land acquisition efforts. The spending plan requests
$164.8 million of discretionary and permanent funding for buying new conservation areas in consultation with other
Interior Department agencies and the Forest Service. That's an overall increase of $117.2 million above the fiscal
2015 enacted level.
Republicans have resisted calls for increasing land acquisition funding, citing the need to first address Interior's
maintenance backlog. The Government Accountability Office estimated in January 2014 that Interior has deferred
maintenance and repairs totaling between $13.8 billion and $20.2 billion.
Funding for protecting rare plants and animals -- another major component of FWS's mission -- is also up in the
president's budget request, albeit by smaller amounts than other administration priorities.
The budget request includes $258.2 million to conserve, protect and enhance wildlife that is listed under the
Endangered Species Act as well as its habitats. The figure is an increase of $32.3 million from 2015. Of that total,
$4 million would go toward protecting the sagebrush steppe ecosystem, which is home to 350 species of concern
as well as 60 that are listed or candidates for ESA listing, like the greater sage grouse.
Cooperative recovery programs -- which support species that are nearing delisting or reclassification from
endangered to threatened, or that are critically endangered -- would also get $10.7 million under the president's
proposal, up $4.8 million from current enacted levels. Funding would be held constant for critical habitat
designations, petitions and foreign listings.
Some wildlife advocates panned the comparatively low budget boost proposed for endangered species protection
efforts.
"We must as a nation put a higher priority on recovering endangered species," Brett Hartl, endangered species
policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email yesterday. "The meager increases proposed
today make no difference for the hundreds of species that receive little to no funding for their recovery. This is a
travesty that needs to be fixed."
But resource development groups argue that the administration shouldn't continue funding implementation of ESA.
"The National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition believes that it is irresponsible to continue to fund a law
that has not been reviewed or updated in over a quarter of a century," Ryan Yates, the group's chairman and the
director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in an emailed statement. "It is
NESARC's hope that policymakers will put aside partisanship and work collectively to develop and approve the
long overdue updates that the law requires."
Republican leaders are planning to revisit the 40-year-old law during the 114th Congress, but environmentalists
doubt any viable reforms will emerge from the process (E&E Daily, Jan. 27).
Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC - www.eenews.net - 202-628-6500
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Students hear drought and water conservation message
Local water district teaches students to save water and do what they can to help during drought
Jeff Stahl, KESQ News Channel 3 Morning News Anchor, [email protected]
POSTED: 09:08 AM PST Feb 02, 2015 UPDATED: 06:00 PM PST Feb 03, 2015
Jeff Stahl
INDIO, Calif. Winter rain storms have quieted talk about California's drought.
But it continues, as do efforts to save water because of our state's three year dry spell.
A local water agency is continuing its effort to reach out to and educate the Coachella Valley's youngest
water users.
Education specialist for the Coachella Valley Water District, Kevin Hempe, visits schools throughout the
Coachella Valley teaching a variety of water-related subjects.
Hempe was at Indio's Amelia Earhart Elementary School recently where he spoke about the Coachella
Valley's first water users, the Cahuilla Tribe.
Old photos show tribal wells so shallow, some just 30-feet deep, the Native Americans simply walked
into them.
Hempe also spoke about our drought and how each and every one of these students can do something
to save water.
Read entire article HERE.
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California: Water Use Down, but Emergency Persists
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEB. 3, 2015
December's rains enabled Californians to finally meet Gov. Jerry Brown's call for a 20 percent reduction
in monthly water consumption, but more restrictions loom as the state adapts to a drought. A survey
released Tuesday that showed an unusually rainy month helped residents cut water use by 22 percent
statewide from December 2013 levels. But the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which supplies a third of
California's water, is 75 percent below its historical average, and for the first time in recorded history,
there was no measurable rainfall in downtown San Francisco in January, when winter rains usually
come. The governor called on Californians to use 20 percent less water last year when he declared a
drought emergency. The closest they previously came to reaching that goal was in August, when water
use dropped 11.6 percent. The state has authorized cities to fine people $500 a day for violating
restrictions on lawn watering and washing cars.
Read entire article HERE.
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Californians make major water cuts in December, reach Gov. Brown's goal
DWP employees work on a drought-resistant garden in front of the entrance to the DWP
headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. California water usage dropped 22.2% in
December 2014 compared with December 2013. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
By MATT STEVENS
February 3, 2015, 1:53 pm
For the first time in seven months of state monitoring, Californians surpassed Gov. Jerry Brown's waterconservation goal, reducing water use by more than 20% in December 2014 compared to the same month
the year before.
The 22.2% statewide reduction came after months of conservation stagnation, which had prompted concern
from some water officials. In August 2014, the state cut its water use by 11.5%, but water conservation
lagged in the months that followed and leveled off around 10%.
Read entire article HERE.
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Sahoma Lake Too Low For Sapulpa Water Treatment Plant
Posted: Feb 03, 2015 11:08 PM EST
Updated: Feb 04, 2015 8:46 AM EST
TESS MAUNE, NEWS ON 6
SAPULPA, Oklahoma A Green Country water source is so low the Sapulpa water treatment plant isn't able to use it.
The caretaker at Sahoma Lake said it's down 11 or 12 feet lower than usual. He said there are
islands that no one's seen before.
While the drop in water is hard on some, it hasn't kept fishermen like Bob Trolinger from casting
their lines in the ole "mud hole."
"Oh just trying to catch these little, ole crappie, they're just the size of your hand. They're little
bitty things," he said.
Trolinger was able to get a bite, even with the low lake levels.
Read entire article HERE.
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Can Sun and Wind Make More Salt Water Drinkable?
Here are four arid regions looking to renewables for the energy-intensive work of squeezing drinkable
water from the ocean.
The $1 billion Poseidon Water desalination plant (shown above in an artist's rendering superimposed on an aerial photograph),
now under construction in Carlsbad, California, will be the biggest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SAN DIEGO COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY/AP
By Marianne Lavelle
National Geographic
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2, 2015
The oceans have long taunted those who thirst.
Records dating to A.D. 200 show that sailors boiled seawater and used sponges to absorb fresh water
from the steam. Today, desalination is more sophisticated: multistage flash distillation, reverse osmosis,
electrodialysis, and more.
But one thing hasn't changed since the time of the ancient mariners: It takes a lot of energy to squeeze
drinkable water from salt water. So even though more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered
with water, civilization has quenched its thirst mainly by tapping the one percent of world water that is
unfrozen and fresh.
Read entire article HERE.
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Scientists see shrinking California snowpack as harbinger
As the climate warms in coming decades, scientists say, the state's mountain snowpack could shrink by
a third
By Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times
Published: 17:12 February 3, 2015
State workers performed a California winter ritual, poking hollow aluminum tubes into Sierra Nevada
meadows to measure the snowpack. In what scientists see as a harbinger, they didn't find much.
"We will conceivably see more years like this in the future," said geologist Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow
at the Public Policy Institute of California.
As the climate warms in coming decades, scientists say, the state's mountain snowpack could shrink by
a third. By the end of the century, more than half of what functions as a huge natural reservoir could
disappear.
Read entire article HERE.
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Fish eating fish and the tales of California water woes
Feb 2, 2015Mike Wade, California Farm Water Coalition | Western Farm Press
While Striped bass are linked to declining salmon populations in California's Delta region farms continue to be
the target of regulatory decisions that keep Delta agricultural pumps turned off.
Steven G. Johnson, creative commons, Wikimedia Commons
In the Seinfeld episode, "The Watch," Jerry Seinfeld says to a woman in a restaurant, "You know why fish
are so thin? They eat fish."
Despite their diets all fish aren't thin. Take bass, for instance. They eat fish. They eat a lot of fish. Bass in
California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta eat a lot of baby salmon and dining season is coming up fast.
You see bass, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, will begin to increase their fish
consumption in the next few months.
Non-native stripers and largemouth bass consume large numbers of threatened and endangered fish each
year in the Delta.
According to "Striped Bass Fishing Tips" on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website, spring
is when bass - an invasive species introduced to provide recreational fishing in the Delta - start their annual
feeding frenzy on native salmon.
Read entire article HERE.
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Advocates say in lawsuit that dinosaur-like sturgeon could be wiped out by river dams
FILE-This June 26, 2002 file photo shows a three-inch pallid sturgeon as it swims with hundreds of others in a tank in
the Miles City State Fish Hatchery in Miles City, Mont. Wildlife advocates say an endangered, dinosaur-like fish is at
risk of being eliminated entirely from key habitat in two rivers in Montana and North Dakota because of dams that
disrupt spawning. Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015 filed a
lawsuit asking a U.S. District Judge in Montana to order new steps to protect pallid sturgeon. (AP Photo/Billings
Gazette, James Woodcock,File)
Associated PressFeb. 2, 2015 | 6:08 p.m. EST
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Wildlife advocates claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that the dinosaur-like pallid
sturgeon could be wiped out in stretches of rivers in Montana and North Dakota if the federal government
doesn't deal with dams that disrupt spawning.
Pallid sturgeon are known for their distinctive shovel-shaped snout and can live 50 years, reaching 6 feet in
length.
Believed to date to the days when Tyrannosaurus Rex walked the Earth, the species has declined sharply over
the past century as dams were built along the Missouri River system.
Read entire article HERE.
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Solving L.A.'s Water Problems By Turning It Into A Giant Sponge
As California's drought problems continue, every drop of water that hits the ground needs saving.
When rain falls in Los Angeles, most of it flows away-despite how desperately the city needs water. As the
drought continues, and as climate change threatens future water supplies, some experts think the city
needs to be fully redesigned to soak up stormwater block by block.
Right now, the city is set up to get water from formerly snow-filled mountains that are warming up.
"We're not designed for rain in the west," says Hadley Arnold, co-founder of the Arid Lands Institute, a
nonprofit and research at Woodbury University that is working on tools to help redesign the area's
approach to water. "We capture snow, and dispose of rain. So in a changing hydrologic cycle where there's
less snow, rain has more value, and we need to figure out how we're going to grab it."
Scott
Jezzard,
Angelito Villanueva, Bianca Bouwer/Perkins+Will
Read entire article HERE.
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or opinions expressed therein, is not intended to indicate endorsement or importance by the NWRA.
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